Michelangelo Effect in Virtual Sculpturing: Prospective for Motor Neurorehabilitation in the Metaverse

Abstract

We investigated the Michelangelo effect, i.e. the facilitatory effect of a virtual art therapy in motor rehabilitation (Iosa et al. 2021), with a novel virtual reality paradigm in which users are engaged in motor exercises with 3D sculptures. In particular, thirty young adults were immersed in a virtual environment where they could sculpt, by using the real hands, some famous sculptures in the history of art, such as the David of Michelangelo, the Venus of Milo and the statue of Laocoon and His Sons, and their control stimuli, i.e. statues in very low resolution or cubes. We recorded the kinematics (length, the time to complete each trial, mean normalized jerk) and questionnaire answers (objective and subjective beauty, User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire and Nasa Task Load Index). In general, we found that the perception of subjective and objective beauty was higher when sculpting the statues than control stimuli, the judgment of usability of the system was high. The perceived fatigue was not higher when sculpting the statues despite the longer time spent in completing the task that with respect to the control stimuli. Moreover, we found that the interaction with the experimental statues affected the fluidity and symmetry of hands movements. Finally, we discuss this evidence regarding the art therapy and neuroaesthetics principles for motor rehabilitation in the Metaverse with VR, including the possible role of virtual embodiment (illusory feeling to have a virtual body) for boosting the efficacy of the clinical applications. 2 Pascucci et al.

Michelangelo Effect in Cognitive Rehabilitation: Using Art in a Digital Visuospatial Memory Task

“…In fact, their performance and their perceived effort were not significantly different among the three conditions. Previous studies also reported this effect in healthy subjects during virtual paintings [6] and virtual sculpturing [16]. This difference could be explained by the fact that the digital memory game task proposed in this study was easier than the tasks tested in virtual reality.…”

“…Then, the perceived effort was not significantly correlated with the patient's memory, suggesting that the Michelangelo effect was generalized independently by the patient's mnemonic capacity. On the other hand, this effect was observed for virtual paintings [6], virtual sculpturing [16], and now, for memory card gaming, suggesting that it could be present in very different tasks.…”

“…They performed three sessions (session order was counterbalanced across subjects of the digital game: French cards, photos of famous people (television journalists), and images of artist s paintings related to the Renaissance (Figure 1). Similarly to previous studies on computerized serious games developed fo rehabilitation [6,[16][17][18][19], a User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire (USEQ) and Nas Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) were administered to subjects after the completion of each session. Both scales test six domains of self-perception concerning the usability and th perceived load demand of the tool.…”

“…Th scores ranged from 0 (not at all) to 10 (the maximum possible). Similarly to previous studies on computerized serious games developed for rehabilitation [6,[16][17][18][19], a User Satisfaction Evaluation Questionnaire (USEQ) and Nasa Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) were administered to subjects after the completion of each session. Both scales test six domains of self-perception concerning the usability and the perceived load demand of the tool.…”

Editorial “Embodiment in the Metaverse: How Real and Virtual Bodies in Interaction Affect Cognition”

“…In their paper, Pascucci and collaborators ( Pascucci et al, 2024 ) investigate the virtual embodiment in the context of the Michelangelo effect, wherein painting a virtual art masterpiece yields less fatigue and motor errors than colouring control canvas. In this study the authors prompted the participants to virtually sculpt either some famous sculptures in the history of art or some control stimuli, using their real hands digitally reproduced in the virtual environment.…”